Rangel: If Zimmerman was black, police would have beat him to death

Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-NY) told MSNBC’s Martin Bashir on Monday that the outcome of the trial of George Zimmerman would have been different had the defendant been black and not Hispanic. If that were the case, Rangel said, the question would be whether the arresting officers would have “beat him to death” before putting him in handcuffs on the spot.

Asked if he could contain his laughter over Zimmerman attorney Mark O’Mara’s assertion that Zimmerman would have never been charged if he had been black, Rangel said that he could not.

“I think it’s possible, if the police had got a black Zimmerman, the question would be whether they would have beat him to death and then threw handcuffs on him and dragged him into the precinct,” Rangel said.